Daily Practice Regimen

g Member 80 posts

g

Kirya wrote:

Hi G,
Kaunsi Kanada / Kaushiki (key differences and phrases to avoid to keep them distinct)
Chandrakauns
Jogkauns
Bhoopeshwari
Nat Bhairav

Ah, I will update or post in a week or two (I'm really busy at the moment with exams). I might even transcribe some gats if you want, when I get some more time.
In the meantime:
You probably already know this site http://www.parrikar.org/vault/ with many examples and "allowed" phrases

The next best resource is http://sarangi.info/ragamala/ for the major ragas, sorted by thaat, with explanations and pakads, if you speak urdu (if not there is a youtube channel with translations but I can't find the link atm - here is a related link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvTX7FDvBj4, where he is talking very briefly about kaunsi kanada)
For Nat Bhairav http://www.soundofindia.com/raaga_details.asp?raaga=70 as it might be more difficult for you to get info on that.
For others, this is mostly correct, http://www.angelfire.com/music5/pupasani/docs/RaagGuide.PDF, for vadi and samvadi
Subra Guha does some nice examples here too http://indianraga.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/raga-guide-4/ - there are a few more scattered around that site

I hope that helps a bit, until I get more time to update this. The ragmala recordings are a priceless resource.

Reply 0 0

Kirya Senior Member 749 posts

Kirya

Thanks for this G sahib

I found another listing of Raga's that is more comprehensive and has links to performances on many of the better known ragas. They also provide the Pakad for most Ragas

http://www.surgyan.com/raagcollection.htm

Here is a full list of what they have and some have much more information than others and many vocal versions linked to learn the raga but hardly any instrumental versions. I do find it useful to hear a vocal performance first when I want to learn a raga so I do not mind.

Abheri
Abhogi
Abhogi Kanada
Adana
Adana Kanada
Ahir Bhairav
Ahir Lalit
Ahiri
Alhaiya Bilawal
.
.
.
.
.
.

Udasi Bhairav
Uday Chandrika
Vachaspati
Vijay
Viranch Mukhi
Yaman
Yaman Kalyan
Yamani Bilawal
Yash Ranjani
Zilaf Asavari Thaat
Zilaf Bhairav Thaat

Kirya in CA

Reply 0 0

Kirya Senior Member 749 posts

Kirya

There are a number of alankars and some simple gats in Bhupali and Yaman at this site.

The alankars are similar to what is in the Ravi Shankar book but there are some video clips and I notice he sings out the sargam while he plays. NB always encouraged us to do that but my regular teacher did not push me too hard on that so I never did. It really does help to "hear" the music when you see a gat written out somewhere.

http://www.sharda.org/SitarLessons.htm

This is the lesson on Bhupali which also has a little video with the slow gat http://www.sharda.org/SitarLesson7.htm

I think much of this could be useful for beginners

Kirya in CA

Reply 0 0

g Member 80 posts

g

Kirya wrote:

Can you provide more basic information on the following ragas – or links to other sites if you do not have specifics
• Aroh/Avroh
• Vadi/Samvadi
• Main Rest Notes
• Pakad
• Chalan Phrases
Thanks

As was mentioned in the other thread, there was a long discussion about kaushiki - they know a lot more than me, so please refer to this thread http://forums.chandrakantha.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3558, especially the posts by Jeff-bhai. It seems to be in concordance with what I posted earlier about the kanada phrases differentiating the two. I might post more about this later, but the differences really aren't that important for now.

I'll start with chandarkauns as it is a fairly simple raga - a modification of Malkauns if you like. (m = tivra, M = shudd)
Tuning wise chikaris can be "g d", "g M", or just "M M" (I prefer the first)

Arohi: S g M d N
Avrohi: S' n D M g
Vadi: M
Samvadi: S
Pakad: S| d. N. S M | g M-d N-->d-->S' (there is a lot more room for meend here,but it's not very easy to write down)
Chalans:
d. N. S g M g S replace central M with dMgM -krintan/hammer ornamentation if you like that
M g M (N)d N S' (N) d M
g-S N. d. N. S --> M
N. S d. N.--, S g, N. S, d. N... g M d, g M-M g, S M g --> S
g M d S' N---,(S')N --> g' --> S

N, d and g are all "tension notes" (this depends on your gharana though), M and S are your "rest" notes.
Those are just a few phrases. A note about the vadi/samvadi - some people say it is g/N in which case you would modify your alaap and bandish to suit - see the last two phrases. There are also older versions of chandarkauns (not pentatonic) though I have little knowledge/experience with them.
I will give an example bandish I have just heard on sarangi (allah rakha - not the table one), in madh/drut teental. I have modified it with sitar bols so please forgive any mistakes. c is chikari;

                                                    9            12               161              4               8                                                     g   MM   g   S    c   S'  S'  S'   <-- this bit here can be delayed a microbeat or two, and then played as d -rd;                                                    d   dir  d   r        d   r    d               can also switch middle S' for N, or play "dir dir d" to add spiced    c    c    N   d   M   g   Sr    c    c    d   r   d   r   d

That is a basic gat, I might make a manjha, antara for it but if you already know a malkauns one, it should be easy enough to modify.

Chandarkauns is a nice raag for drut and madh bandishes though I find it has been overused into tedium with it's use as a raag for lehra by our drum beating friends.
You should listen to Nikhil's and Ravi Shankar's recordings for inspiration, and an interesting related raga called Chandraprabhu (Bismallah does an hour long recording on his youtube vevo account), which has a similar scale, replace g with shudda rishab, making S R M d N S'

If the notation isn't clear I might upload a clip if that might help.

I hope that has been of some use. I will approach Nat Bhairav next.
Let me know if I have made any mistakes.

Reply 0 0

Kirya Senior Member 749 posts

Kirya

I recently bought the Indrajit DVD on Raag Kirwani and it got me started and comfortable with playing Kirwani so that I am now even comfortable playing alap and jod in the raag. I recommend his stuff to anybody who wants to learn new ragas as he gives you enough seed material to really start exploring on your own.

So as I was in this configuration with the komal Dha fret setup I decided I wanted to learn new raags that also have this fret configuration. I know it is easy to move them but I feel you have to really get tuned into a configuration to really get into a raag, especially one that you have not been taught.

As I don't really have a live teacher I am trying to learn new ragas on my own.

So with some very helpful suggestions from the knowledgeable Mr. G I started with a few ragas and now have gotten very comfortable with Charukeshi and growing comfort level with Sampoorna Malkauns and Kaunsi Kanada. Though I have not gotten good enough clues on Kaushiki yet.

The basic approach I have is as follows:

1. Learn the aroh/avroh of the raag
2. Have some basic understanding of chalan and nyasa swara -- Parrikar site can be useful for this if you both sing and play the key phrases. The short lectures from Jha are especially useful
3. Find some really good performances by masters or others, and I find vocal performances with sargam sections especially helpful but sometimes you can find really good sitar stuff on Youtube e.g. Kaunsi Kanada alap by S Sengupta where you have video as well as audio and a gat so it is like a teacher session.

There are many links to great performances in this thread http://forums.chandrakantha.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10263 which is mostly sitar pieces but recently has had more vocal references.I think it is really important to find outstanding performances so that you really get the "feel" of a raag beyond just the note combinations -- this also helps in finding where to rest, nyasa swar use and understanding critical transitions. So if you look at the links for Charukeshi in that thread you will get a decent idea of how the raag flows.
4. Find a fixed composition if possible or at least an accurate Hindi movie song (many of these songs mix raags so they are to be used with care and sites that tell you what song is what raag are often wrong) so you have a basic foundation. Learn it and play it often and go back and check to see you are not introducing wrong phrasing or incorrect rest notes etc...
5. Start exploring around key note clusters and go back and listen to the master performances as often as possible between your own practice to see if yo are on track -- it is funny how as you start understanding key phrasing as you do all this. Once you identify the Sa on any piece you are listening to you can start getting the feel for the phrases different people are using --so I find it is always easier starting with vilambit combinations where I can actually capture it.
6. Record yourself and include your playing in a playlist with the good recordings that you found and you will be able to tell when you are on the track or off target.
7. Go to try alap around key phrase ideas in purvang and utterang and see if you can connect these nicely. It is very easy to mix ragas up here is you are not careful so this can really only be done if you have done all of the above first.

This is basically the process I am using and I find it is useful to talk to others who have the knowledge and generosity, like Mr. G whose words can provide further guidance.

Are there other self-learning techniques that others have learnt that you could add to this?

BTW I am very interested in learning Raag Gauti / Gawoti ( I know of some great performances by UVK, Imrat Khan and PNB -- but no good vocal pieces) but I cannot find much else on basic chalan -- Does anybody know of good sources for this beyond the Parrikar stuff shown below?

The following chalan captures Gavati’s essence:
G M P (S”)n S” (P)D, P, D M P G M R n’ S
S M, M P G M P n, S”, P n S” (P)D, P

Kirya in CA

Reply 0 0

ahirbhairav 165 posts

ahirbhairav

Kirya wrote:

BTW I am very interested in learning Raag Gauti / Gawoti ( I know of some great performances by UVK, Imran Khan and PNB -- but no good vocal pieces) but I cannot find much else on basic chalan -- Does anybody know of good sources for this beyond the Parrikar stuff shown below?

The following chalan captures Gavati’s essence:
G M P (S”)n S” (P)D, P, D M P G M R n’ S
S M, M P G M P n, S”, P n S” (P)D, P

I don't know if this classifies as classical, but I do have a recording of the Hanuman Chalisa in Raag Gaoti by Smt. Devaki Pandit....sorry if I acted very stupid by posting this and generated lots of angry posts requesting for me to be banned...(I just know it's going to happen sometime sooner)

Next concert: Aditya Sharma (today)
Sandipan Samajpati (9/28)
Shubhendra Rao (10/19)
Rakesh & Friends (Gino Banks, the drummer, tweeted me that they'll be in Oct, so whenever they come here, if they come here.)
Zakir Hussain & company (3/23/14)

Reply 0 0

pbercker 1,451 posts

pbercker

ahirbhairav wrote:

Kirya wrote:

BTW I am very interested in learning Raag Gauti / Gawoti ( I know of some great performances by UVK, Imran Khan and PNB -- but no good vocal pieces) but I cannot find much else on basic chalan -- Does anybody know of good sources for this beyond the Parrikar stuff shown below?

The following chalan captures Gavati’s essence:
G M P (S”)n S” (P)D, P, D M P G M R n’ S
S M, M P G M P n, S”, P n S” (P)D, P

I don't know if this classifies as classical, but I do have a recording of the Hanuman Chalisa in Raag Gaoti by Smt. Devaki Pandit....sorry if I acted very stupid by posting this and generated lots of angry posts requesting for me to be banned...(I just know it's going to happen sometime sooner)

Speaking for myself, and myself only, I do NOT believe that your post, however ill mannered, merits your being banned. I do not know who has requested that you be banned, and do not even know IF such a request has been made. However I have written to David to register my own opinion that you not be banned for such a minor infraction.

I have seen much much worse from any number of people, and it's to be regretted that some have suddenly developed very thin skins indeed.

Pascal

My opinion given without any warranties, expressed or implied, that it's even relevant. It would be folly to rely on my opinion without seeking more professional tabla advice. If you are suffering from a tabla condition, seek immediate attention.

Reply 0 0

Kirya Senior Member 749 posts

Kirya

Quote:

I do have a recording of the Hanuman Chalisa in Raag Gaoti by Smt. Devaki Pandit

Thanks for the reference.

This is another one that does help to get basic chalan by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO9aARKqg9A

Kirya in CA

Reply 0 0

ahirbhairav 165 posts

ahirbhairav

Kirya wrote:

Quote:

I do have a recording of the Hanuman Chalisa in Raag Gaoti by Smt. Devaki Pandit

Thanks for the reference.

This is another one that does help to get basic chalan by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO9aARKqg9A

Yes, that piece definitely is a nice way to get a chalan. I'm more into vocal though, so...sitar is nice though

Next concert: Aditya Sharma (today)
Sandipan Samajpati (9/28)
Shubhendra Rao (10/19)
Rakesh & Friends (Gino Banks, the drummer, tweeted me that they'll be in Oct, so whenever they come here, if they come here.)
Zakir Hussain & company (3/23/14)

Reply 0 0

ahirbhairav 165 posts

ahirbhairav

Kirya wrote:

BTW I am very interested in learning Raag Gauti / Gawoti ( I know of some great performances by UVK, Imran Khan and PNB -- but no good vocal pieces) but I cannot find much else on basic chalan -- Does anybody know of good sources for this beyond the Parrikar stuff shown below?

The following chalan captures Gavati’s essence:
G M P (S”)n S” (P)D, P, D M P G M R n’ S
S M, M P G M P n, S”, P n S” (P)D, P

Rakesh Chaurasia & Ulhas Bapat: Relaxation based on Raag Gaoti: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3xttEGUiAI

Next concert: Aditya Sharma (today)
Sandipan Samajpati (9/28)
Shubhendra Rao (10/19)
Rakesh & Friends (Gino Banks, the drummer, tweeted me that they'll be in Oct, so whenever they come here, if they come here.)
Zakir Hussain & company (3/23/14)

Reply 0 0

Kirya Senior Member 749 posts

Kirya

Finding a way to get bandishes and taans into a computer in a reasonably accurate notation has always been a challenge since putting dots above and below letters is kind of a pain to do.

Here is somebody who is offering a solution but I am having a hard time figuring it out as you need to install a bunch of things before you can use it -- I have not been successful so far

http://ragapedia.com/doremi-script-gui/index.html#/root

John says you need the "sargam font" to use this but I cannot find any such font -- does anybody know where you can get this for a Windows machine?

Quote:

I've created a tool such as you've described:

http://ragapedia.com

It does latin style sargam notation, creates, midi, pdf, abc, lilypond.

You'll need to download the sargam font to use it.

ragapedia.com implements the notational system at use at AACM (Ali
Akbar College of Music), in San Rafael California.

You could probably get the program to display devanagri by modifying
the sargam font and changing the letters to devanagri script.

Its written in Ruby on Rails. I look forward to any feedback or comments.

Regards, John
707 331-2700

Kirya in CA

Reply 0 0

Kirya Senior Member 749 posts

Kirya

Great post on Raga Lalit on the newly active Deepak Raja blog: http://swaratala.blogspot.com/2013/08/raga-lalit-tonal-geometry-and-melodic.html

Raga Lalit: Tonal geometry and melodic mischief

Lalit is amongst the older and more popular ragas of the Hindustani system. It bears a close resemblance to raga Lalitha of the Carnatic system. The two ragas are considered manifestations of the same traditional melodic idea.

Lalit (also called Lalat) is a hexatonic raga prescribed for performance in the pre-sunrise hours. In the contemporary context, it has found a niche for itself in the three-hour period after sunrise. Some musicological texts approve of this timing. The melodic contours of the raga have also changed during this century. Its older form is still in occasional practice. Its popular contemporary form is, however, most relevant for present day listeners. (swara material:S r G M M^ d N).

The melodic personality of Lalit is dominated by the rare, probably unique, use of the two Ma swara-s (shuddha and tivra). Lalit features the use of the two Ma swara-s sequentially in the ascent as well as the descent. This is an exception to the general rule for ragas using both pitches of any swara (natural and flat or natural and sharp). In such cases of twin-swara usage, the the general rule is that the raga is permitted to use only one of the two in the ascent, the other being used in the descent. Their sequential use in either direction is generally considered improper. The importance of this feature of Lalit is enhanced by the fact that the shuddha (natural) Ma is the vadi-swara, the pivotal around which the raga revolves.

In its predominant contemporary form, Lalit uses flat (komal) swara for Dh. Bhatkhande,, writing in the 1930's considered the natural (Shuddha) Dh swara as proper for Lalit, while acknowledging that the flat (Komal) Dh usage also had textual validation. He also recognized that, because of the dominance of twin-Ma usage in the melodic personality of the raga, the choice of either of the alternative Dh swara-s does not materially influence the distinctive Lalit effect.(Bhatkhande Sangeet Shastra Vol.III Ed.LN Garg, Sangeet Karyalaya, Hathras, Third Hindi edition, 1984.Pg.304-321),

Bhatkhande described Lalit as uttaranga-pradhan, a raga whose center of gravity is in the upper tetrachord. Bhatkhande might now be obsolete with respect to this description. Traditional and modern compositions, considered collectively, betray the compelling grip of the twin-Ma usage in the mid-octave region over the composer's mind. The raga may now be more appropriately classified as madhyanga-pradhan.

Lalit has two facets to its personality: the geometric, and the melodic. Bhatkhande provides the basic clue to both these facets. He recommends treating the scale, notionally, as a two-part, discontinuous scale, split between the two Ma swara-s, with Shuddha Ma on one side, and the tivra on the other. This gives you S-r-G-M and M^-d-N-S.

This division does not yield symmetrical or congruent units. To achieve this balance, the scale gets redefined, for phraseological purposes, in first-fifth correspondence: N.-r-G-M and M^-d-N-S'. These divisions, considered separately but in correspondence, provide the acoustic basis for the geometry. Lalit releases its distinctive fragrance by treating these scale divisions as discontinuous, and in fusing them together. The welding takes place between the Shuddha and tivra Ma swara-s, with the support of either Ga below or Dh above. This joinery gives the raga its defining, and unique, melodic personality.

The raga has a third, but unintended, facet, which can surface due to the inept or mischievous handling of the dominance of the shuddha (natural) Ma in the raga. With excessive or inattentive improvisation around shuddha Ma, it is easy to create an aural illusion of Ma as the scale-base. The results can be quaint.

If Ma becomes, even momentarily, the notional scale base in the listener's mind, Lalit starts sounding like Todi. Interestingly, one significant gharana of vocal music explicitly teaches Lalit as Todi sung to scale-base at Ma, and does so without ridiculous results.

Lalit phrasing: G M d M^ M
Todi illusion: N S g r S

Lalit phrasing: N d M^ d M^ M
Todi illusion: M^ g r g r S

Lalit phrasing: r' N d M^ d M^ M
Todi illusion : d M^ g r g r S

Orthodox musicians calculatedly avoid such risks. Contemporary musicians occasionally take delight in the raga's potential for mischief, allowing the illusion to persist for a while before restoring the relationship of the phrasing to base-Sa.

The Ma/Sa confusion is relevant also to the tuning of instruments. Because Lalit does not use the Pa swara, vocalists tune their tanpuras to Ma-Sa-Sa-Sa. If Ma replaces the Sa as the scale-base in the listener's mind, the Sa on the tanpura begins to sound like Pa, which is forbidden in the raga. The danger of such slippage is generally negligible in sitar and the sarod music, where the second string and the chikaris, tuned to Sa do not allow the scale-base to relent for any significant duration.

The chalan (distinctive phraseology) provides the defining contours of the raga's melodic personality. The scale divisions permit the improvisational process to explore its potential for symmetric, geometric as well kaleidoscopic tonal patterns. And, the Ma/Sa double-entendre makes the raga pregnant with an element of wit. Lalit is thus rich in musical potential.

Bhatkhande has described Lalit as a raga of serious temperament. The standard Lalit of his times uses Shuddha Dh, and omits Ni in the ascent (M^-D-S'). The contemporary Lalit uses komal Dh, and permits the ascent to use Ni (M^-d-N-S') without prohibiting the traditional ascent (M^-d-S'). With this change, the raga has shed some of its robust quality, but sharpened its poignancy.

The seriousness of the original Lalit has now tilted towards pathos. To appreciate this, we merely need to observe what the "Lalit effect" does when blended with raga Gauri in Lalita-Gauri and when dovetailed to Sohini in Lalita-Sohini. It makes them weep.

Kirya in CA

Reply 0 0

Kirya Senior Member 749 posts

Kirya

Alam Khan gave a free class on Raga Bhairavi that is worth watching -- you can also play along if you tune your sitar to C

He spends the first hour on scales, murchanas in the Bhairavi scale so that students have some basic fluency in the general Bhairavi domain.

It is worth watching as I imagine this would be very close to what Ali Akbar Khan lessons were like.

Quote:

Watch Alam Khan's Online Workshop

On July 27th, Alam presented a free online workshop to interested people around the world. Sixty participants attended internationally; it was presented at 8 AM PST in order to accommodate all time zones. Alam began the workshop with basic exercises and then moved up to a composition. The participants played varied instruments of both Western and Indian backgrounds, and there was a simultaneous chat going on between the musicians about various tunings and ways of adapting the music to their instrument.

It was a very energetic, fun and successful event and we would love to share it with all of you. Alam hopes to repeat this, so please stay tuned!

WATCH THE WORKSHOP http://www.instantpresenter.com/WebConference/RecordingDefault.aspx?c_psrid=EA56D880844D

Kirya in CA

Reply 0 0

Kirya Senior Member 749 posts

Kirya

I saw a very interesting article on How many hours to practice - how to practice from a Western musician perspective but really it applies to anybody who really wants to play music anywhere in the world.

http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/how-many-hours-a-day-should-you-practice/

Some Excerpts:

Mindless Practice

Have you ever listened to someone practice? Have you ever listened to yourself practice, for that matter? Tape yourself practicing for an hour, take a walk through the practice room area at school and eavesdrop on your fellow students, or ask your students to pretend they are at home and watch them practice during a lesson. What do you notice?

You’ll notice that the majority of folks practice rather mindlessly, either engaging in mere repetition (“practice this passage 10 times” or “practice this piece for 30 minutes”) or practicing on autopilot (that’s when we play through the piece until we hear something we don’t like, stop, repeat the passage again until it sounds better, and resume playing through the piece until we hear the next thing we aren’t satisfied with, at which point we begin this whole process over again).

There are three major problems with the mindless method of practicing.

1. It is a waste of time

Why? For one, very little productive learning takes place when we practice this way. This is how we can practice a piece for hours, days, or weeks, and still not feel that we’ve improved all that much. Even worse, you are actually digging yourself a hole by practicing this way, because what this model of practicing does do is strengthen undesirable habits and errors, literally making it more likely that you will screw up more consistently in the future. This makes it more difficult to correct these habits in the future – so you are actually adding to the amount of future practice time you will need in order to eliminate these bad habits and tendencies. I once worked with a saxophone professor who was fond of reminding his students that “Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent.”

2. It makes you less confident

In addition, practicing this way actually hurts your confidence, as there is a part of you that realizes you don’t really know how to consistently produce the results you are looking for. Even if you establish a fairly high success rate in the most difficult passages via mindless practice, and find that you can nail it 3 or 4 out of every 5 attempts, your confidence won’t grow much from this. Real on-stage confidence comes from (a) being able to nail it 10 out of 10 tries, (b) knowing that this isn’t a coincidence but that you can do it the correct way on demand, because most importantly (c) you know precisely why you nail it or miss it – i.e. you know exactly what you need to do from a technique standpoint in order to play the passage perfectly every time.

You may not be able to play it perfectly every time at first, but this is what repetition is for – to reinforce the correct habits until they are stronger than the bad habits. It’s a little like trying to grow a nice looking lawn. Instead of fighting a never-ending battle against the weeds, your time is better spent trying to cultivate the grass so that over time the grass crowds out the weeds.

And here’s the biggie. We tend to practice unconsciously, and then end up trying to perform consciously – not a great formula for success. Recall from this article that you have a tendency to shift over into hyper-analytical left brain mode when you walk out on stage. Well, if you have done most of your practicing unconsciously, you really don’t know how to play your piece perfectly on demand. When your brain suddenly goes into full-conscious mode, you end up freaking out, because you don’t know what instructions to give your brain.

3. It is tedious and boring

Practicing mindlessly is a chore. Music may be one of the only skill-based activities where practice goals are measured in units of time. We’ve all had teachers who tell us to go home and practice a certain passage x number of times, or to practice x number of hours, right? What we really need are more specific outcome goals – such as, practice this passage until it sounds like _____, or practice this passage until you can figure out how to make it sound like _____.

After all, it doesn’t really matter how much time we spend practicing something – only that we know how to produce the results we want, and can do so consistently, on demand.
Deliberate Practice

So what is deliberate, or mindful practice? Deliberate practice is a systematic and highly structured activity, which is, for lack of a better word, scientific. Instead of mindless trial and error, it is an active and thoughtful process of experimentation with clear goals and hypotheses. Violinist Paul Kantor once said that the practice room should be like a laboratory, where one can freely tinker with different ideas, both musical and technical, to see what combination of ingredients produces the result you are looking for.

Deliberate practice is often slow, and involves repetition of small and very specific sections of your repertoire instead of just playing through (e.g. working on just the opening note of your solo to make sure that it “speaks” exactly the way you want, instead of playing the entire opening phrase).

Deliberate practice involves monitoring one’s performance (in real-time, but also via recordings), continually looking for new ways to improve. This means really listening to what happens, so that you can tell yourself exactly what went wrong. For instance, was the first note note sharp? Flat? Too loud? Too soft? Too harsh? Too short? Too long?

Let’s say that the note was too sharp and too long with not enough of an attack to begin the note. Well, how sharp was it? A little? A lot? How much longer was the note than you wanted it to be? How much more of an attack did you want?

Ok, the note was a little sharp, just a hair too long, and required a much clearer attack in order to be consistent with the marked articulation and dynamics. So, why was the note sharp? What did you do? What do you need to do to make sure the note is perfectly in tune every time? How do you ensure that the length is just as you want it to be, and how do you get a consistently clean and clear attack to begin the note so it begins in the right character?

Now, let’s imagine you recorded all of this and could listen to how this last attempt sounded. Does that combination of ingredients give you the desired result? In other words, does that combination of ingredients convey the mood or character you want to communicate to the listener as effectively as you thought it would?

Few musicians take the time to stop, analyze what went wrong, why it happened, and how they can correct the error permanently.

Kirya in CA

Reply 0 0

pbercker 1,451 posts

pbercker

Some of the nitty-gritty details about "deliberate practice" :

The Role of Deliberate practice in the acquisition of Expert Performance by K. Anders Ericsson and others:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/DeliberatePractice(PsychologicalReview).pdf

...

But the skeptical - or maybe more nuanced view -

http://thesportsgene.com/

I posted some brief excerpts some months ago here:

http://forums.chandrakantha.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10647&p=74972&hilit=talent#p75758

pb

My opinion given without any warranties, expressed or implied, that it's even relevant. It would be folly to rely on my opinion without seeking more professional tabla advice. If you are suffering from a tabla condition, seek immediate attention.

Reply 0 0

Indian Music Forums

Smileys & People

Animals

Food & Drink

Symbols

Travel & Places

Alphabet

Activity

Modal title

Smileys & People

Animals

Food & Drink

Symbols

Travel & Places

Alphabet

Activity

Insert Code

Source Code

Insert Link